Xinhai City, Old City, Jinshan Community.

The community with a bit of a cheesy name is a community built over 20 years ago. The residential buildings in the community look quite dilapidated. Now most of the people living here are elderly people and low-income people.

This area is the old urban area of ​​Xinhai City. Several neighboring communities were developed decades ago. Because they are close to the city center, they are quite popular. There have been news of demolition several times such as Jinshan Community, but they have no follow-up due to various reasons.

At 6:30 in the morning, several breakfast shops near the community had already opened, and many people working on the morning shift were already having breakfast here.

A young man wearing a wrinkled shirt and fair skin walked into a snack bar. The busy boss saw the young man coming. Before the young man could speak, he shouted enthusiastically: "A bowl of tofu brain, add more soy sauce."

After saying that, the boss picked up three buns from the steamer and sent them to the young man's table, saying, "Xiao Su, it's so early today."

The young man's name is Su Li, 25 years old, with very white skin, but his face was covered with stubble and his hair was a little messy. It was obvious that he had not cleaned up for two days.

This snack bar is a famous old store here. The owner has sold breakfast here for 30 years and is Su Li's neighbor. Su Li has been dealing with breakfast here before going to college, so he is quite familiar with the boss.

However, after Su Li went to college, he came less.

However, he recently returned to his hometown and came here for breakfast again.

Su Li took a bite of the bun and yawned.

There is no doubt that Su Li stayed up late again.

The characteristic of the old city is that there are many acquaintances. Not long after, several tables were already sitting in the snack bar. The bosses greeted them one after another. They seemed to be all acquaintances, and some of them were still known to Su Li.

Several elderly people sat together, chatting about family matters, while occasionally floating towards Su Li.

At this time, the boss was idle. While chatting with others, he pointed at Su Li and said enthusiastically: "This is my old neighbor's son, Xiao Su, who is a top student from Tsinghua University. Later, he went to study in the United States. Do you think it's amazing?"

When Su Li heard the boss talking about him, he raised his head and smiled shyly.

The boss then said to an old lady: "I said you have been in a hurry to find someone to date your granddaughter recently? I think Xiao Su is good, has a high education and is talented."

The old lady glanced at Su Li, and a trace of light flashed in her eyes, but when she saw Su Li's appearance, she glanced at a hint of contempt.

But I have to admit that Su Li is not very good now.

Su Li also admitted this, but when he went out, he was so hungry that he wanted to go home to sleep after eating, so he didn't clean up himself.

When I heard the boss’s top Tsinghua students studying in the United States, and everyone in the snack bar couldn’t help but turn their attention to Su Li. Someone who was accused of asking, “Oh, it’s so amazing, what job does the young man do?”

Before Su Li could answer, a sarcastic voice came from the corner of the snack bar: "What kind of work can he do? He doesn't know what he does when he stays at home every day, and he doesn't look like he is good at studying, but he is afraid he will be stupid."

Su Li looked in the voice and a menopausal woman in her fifties glanced at Su Li and said proudly.

Hearing this, the old lady who was still looking at Su Li immediately withdrew her gaze and stared at the food on her plate without looking sideways.

Su Li is familiar with this menopause woman. He lives in the same building as him and has a son who is about the same age as him.

However, her son never knows how to study, and after high school, he can only go to work. Su Li knew that this was a knot for this vanity and comparative menopause woman. Whenever he saw herself, he felt a little angry and felt that he had lost face.

Now that Su Li has returned to his hometown after studying abroad, he stayed at home and had no job, which made her feel a little proud, and she wanted to disgust herself when she found an opportunity.

Everyone in the snack bar calmed down, but the look at Su Li was a little strange. In the minds of these people, it was a shame that someone with high education but no job like Su Li was.

The boss glanced at Su Li apologetically. He didn't expect that he would give Su Li a little cold words, and he felt a little sad.

Su Li smiled at the boss, and after eating the bun, tofu brain, he took out a little change and put it on the table.

When Su Li was about to walk out of the snack bar, he turned around and smiled at the menopause woman and said, "Auntie, your child and I were quite familiar with each other when we were young. I have to remind you here that the construction industry is in a downturn and your son is still very hard on the construction site. You have to be careful not to be dragged down by the foreman."

Then he paused and said sincerely: "When you ask for wages, be careful not to be beaten."

After saying that, Su Li went straight out of the snack bar and went home, turning a deaf ear to the shrew's curse coming from behind.

…………

…………

When she got home, Su Li sorted out his work results for the whole night, checked his email address, and after confirming that there were no new emails, she fell asleep.

Although Su Li did not go to work, he had his own job.

Indie game producer.

A very miserable, alone, and not much famous independent game producer.

For Su Li, the gaming career is his lifelong pursuit. When he first came into contact with the games on FC that seem extremely simple now, he was deeply fascinated by it.

During the college entrance examination, Su Li entered the computer department of Tsinghua University with high scores. After graduating with excellent grades, Su Li carefully considered and rejected OFFER, a major from world-class universities such as MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and chose Game Center from New York University to study game design.

This is his choice to pursue his dreams and making an epoch-making game, which is his ideal.

After graduating from New York University, Su Li gave up the opportunity to enter a first-tier game manufacturer and chose to be an independent game producer.

In order to reduce living expenses, Su Li returned to his hometown and lived in this old house. Su Li's parents bought a new house a few years ago, and the old house has been rented out. At Su Li's request, he lived here alone after returning from the United States, and it was also his studio.

Independent games are definitely an extremely difficult road in today's environment, full of unknowns and risks.

Especially in China, the atmosphere in the game industry here seems more unsuitable for independent game producers to survive than in Europe and the United States.

However, Su Li didn't care about this. He only wanted to make a game of his own that could bring happiness to people, rather than a money-making game bound by words such as profit points, retention rates, and monthly flow.

However, even if you are doing independent games, there are few people like Su Li who fight alone.

Games are a very systematic project, even for independent mini-games.

If you don't look for outsourcing, it means that Su Li has to solve a series of complicated tasks such as programs, art, music, UI, copywriting, etc. alone.

Over the years, Su Li has been preparing to be a qualified game producer. In addition to his best programs, he also learned art, music, UI design, etc. Although he is not as good as professional talents, he is at least barely useful.

For independent games, the most important thing is the producer's fantastic ideas and interesting designs. No one will blame the quality or music of independent games.

The first game Su Li made was a pixel-style horizontal pass game. The level design was quite exquisite. Although the game content was not much, the evaluation was good. He posted this game on the steam platform, and the income he received could support his life.
Chapter completed!